RESURRECTION MARY

By a contributor who goes by the name B. Procyon

Like many large cities, Chicago has its share of ghosts, which is not surprising considering its colorful and sometimes violent history. Some of the more persistent hauntings occur as phantom smells or cold spots; some are recreations of a tragic event that replay over and over like a movie loop, and some seem to be spirits who have gone on to new lives of their own in the afterlife.

One of the most popular and sought after specters is a hitchhiking ghost named Resurrection Mary, so named for the cemebery where she is thought to be buried and where she has made repeated appearances for nearly seventy years.

The basic legend of Resurrection Mary is fairly simple but consistent. A girl in a white party dress is seen walking along a lonely stretch of Archer Avenue in Justice, a suburb located just southwest of Chicago. Sometimes she is offered a ride by a concerned motorist. Other times, she flags down a car looking for a lift. In either scenario, she gets into the car and directs the driver to continue down Archer. As the cemetery comes into view, she demands that the driver stop the car and she jumps out, runs toward the gates and disappears. At times, the driver doesn’t stop, protesting that there are no houses in the area; he (Mary likes male motorists) will invariably look around to discover that she has disappeared even though the car hasn’t stopped and the door never opened.

Mary has also been known to make appearances at a local ballroom. Witnesses report seeing--and even dancing with--a blonde girl in a white dress. She doesn’t say much and seems to be very cold and pale. Considerate dance partners who offer her a ride home at the end of the evening share the same experience as the motorists who picked up the hitchhiking ghost in the above.

No one is sure who Mary was in life but most theories share some common traits. She was young, blonde, and loved going to dances and parties. A favorite theory is that she is a Polish girl from the south side of Chicago who died in the early 1930s. As speculation goes, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to think this is true. The area was heavily populated with Polish immigrants, and surnames on the headstones in Resurrection Cemetery support that. Most theorists also believe that Mary is the actual name of the ghost. Research showed several girls from the right time-frame who fit the profile, and all were named Mary. Of course, Mary (and its variations) was always a popular choice for Catholic baby girls, so again the reasoning isn’t out of line.

“Mary” frequented the dance halls that were popular at the time. One of those ballrooms was the O Henry (now known as Willowbrook), and over the years Mary’s ghost seems to have returned there time and again. She is thought to have been killed in some type of car accident after a late night of dancing. Some think she was in a crash; others believe she was the victim of a hit and run. The second theory might carry some weight since one of the variations on her Archer Avenue sightings is that of a young woman who appears suddenly in the middle of the street. The car’s driver is unable to stop in time, reports feeling the impact of the car hitting a body, but on inspection, there is no sign of a victim. At other times, passing motorists have called police to report the body of a hit and run victim lying at the side of the road. When rescuers arrive, the body is gone, but the impression remains in the grass.

Reports of sightings began in the late 30s, sometimes occurring close together and sometimes with long stretches in between. Witnesses have been reported as reliable:  sober, steady, and unshakable in their description of their experiences. There have certainly been enough stories to convince amateur ghost hunters to stake out the general area and to draw several popular ghost tours for many years.

There was a spike of activity during the 1970s and 1980s, but in 1976, an unusual incident occurred. A police officer on routine patrol received a call from his dispatcher reporting that a call had come in reporting a girl was seen locked inside the cemetery. When he arrived at the gates, he found that the heavy bars were bent and twisted apart and seemed to have been subjected to high heat. There was no sign of a girl, but closer inspection revealed finger and hand prints in the twisted bronze.

Once the story got out, the cemetery claimed that a truck or some type of heavy vehicle had hit the gates and caused the damage. Cemetery officials went so far as to remove the bars, which created even more interest. The original bars were eventually replaced after being straightened and repainted.

Since then, sightings have continued to be reported off and on over the years, but have dropped off considerably. There is no reason to believe that Mary is no longer active, but perhaps she’s become more selective when she chooses her rides.

Personal note:

The bent bar story piqued my own curiosity when I first heard about it, and Resurrection Cemetery was my very first investigation. I headed down to take a look at the bars and was lucky enough to see them before the cemetery removed them and obliterated the evidence. The bars looked scorched and were most definitely pulled apart as if someone had gripped one in each hand and wrenched them in opposite directions. In no way did the damage appear to have been caused by a vehicle impacting with them. The hand and fingerprints were clearly visible, including the swirls and whorls, and looked as if they’d been pressed into the metal while it was hot enough to make the impression. When I placed my own hands (which are not very large) into the marks, they fit in place quite easily and were, in fact, slightly smaller than my own. It was a powerful experience and I felt as if I had truly connected with something supernatural.

A walk around the cemetery grounds led me to an area that was undergoing some kind of renovation. Piles of headstones were strewn around haphazardly, and it was obvious that graves had been dug up to be moved for some reason. My immediate thought was that one of those graves might be Mary’s and could be the reason for the increased number of sightings. Since that time, I’ve found that other investigators shared similar thoughts.